13,047 research outputs found
A Cellular Automaton Model for the Traffic Flow in Bogota
In this work we propose a car cellular automaton model that reproduces the
experimental behavior of traffic flows in Bogot\'a. Our model includes three
elements: hysteresis between the acceleration and brake gaps, a delay time in
the acceleration, and an instantaneous brake. The parameters of our model were
obtained from direct measurements inside a car on motorways in Bogot\'a. Next,
we simulated with this model the flux-density fundamental diagram for a
single-lane traffic road and compared it with experimental data. Our
simulations are in very good agreement with the experimental measurements, not
just in the shape of the fundamental diagram, but also in the numerical values
for both the road capacity and the density of maximal flux. Our model
reproduces, too, the qualitative behavior of shock waves. In addition, our work
identifies the periodic boundary conditions as the source of false peaks in the
fundamental diagram, when short roads are simulated, that have been also found
in previous works. The phase transition between free and congested traffic is
also investigated by computing both the relaxation time and the order
parameter. Our work shows how different the traffic behavior from one city to
another can be, and how important is to determine the model parameters for each
city.Comment: 14 pages and 13 figures (gzipped tar file). Submitted to
Int.J.Mod.Phys.C. Minor changes, specially at references and typoes, plus a
clearer summary of the CA rule
Explanation and observability of diffraction in time
Diffraction in time (DIT) is a fundamental phenomenon in quantum dynamics due
to time-dependent obstacles and slits. It is formally analogous to diffraction
of light, and is expected to play an increasing role to design coherent matter
wave sources, as in the atom laser, to analyze time-of-flight information and
emission from ultrafast pulsed excitations, and in applications of coherent
matter waves in integrated atom-optical circuits. We demonstrate that DIT
emerges robustly in quantum waves emitted by an exponentially decaying source
and provide a simple explanation of the phenomenon, as an interference of two
characteristic velocities. This allows for its controllability and
optimization.Comment: 4 pages, 6 figure
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